


Consequences

by Woni



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018), The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller
Genre: Amnesia, How Do I Tag, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:41:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28451061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Woni/pseuds/Woni
Summary: Even sips have consequences, when you drink from the river of oblivion
Relationships: Achilles/Patroclus (Hades Video Game), Achilles/Patroclus (Song of Achilles)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 85





	Consequences

They’re at the edge of his mind, the memories. He can feel them, Patroclus thinks, if he concentrates hard enough. Yet, they slips away just before he can get his hands on them. 

Even sips have consequences, when you drink from the Oblivion.

It’s like navigating your home blindfolded. You’re aware of the general layout, where some furnitures are supposed to be at. Maybe you can even reach out and touch some of their familiar edges; it doesn’t change the fact that you can’t see or describe what’s really in there.

‘No,’ he says, ‘I’m afraid I don’t remember,’ and watches the other’s heart break a little. Shrouded by sweet smile still, but Pat can see through nonetheless. His own heart breaks a little, too, which shouldn’t be possible considering there’s only shadow in the place of where his heart once was. Ah, life’s final cruelty and all that, as Achilles put it so melodramatically in that codex of his. 

‘What do you remember?’ Achilles asks.  
(How much did you forget - did you forget me, of us, He doesn’t ask. Ever the coward). 

He used to be made of memories - still is, for shades are nothing but remnants of memories and phantom pain - but now he fades away sometimes. Pat notices when he’s becoming fainter, just a bit more faded and transparent that he can almost see through himself to the patch of grass he’s sitting on. With Him by his side, he’s more solid these days, memories as vivid as if he’s re-living the days (or nights). 

(He still slips away. And sometimes the color of his love’s eyes or the length of his curls or the places where different promises were muttered get lost and he panics -)

‘I don’t know,’ Pat shrugs, swallowing down the feeling of his chest constricting, ‘so tell me what you remember.’ And Achilles does. 

The figs and lyre and ocean.   
The mountain and the way the light embraced our bodies one particular afternoon. The night swims and warmth from shared bedroll. Quiet and sacred whispers during tangling of bodies.   
This and this and this. 

(He leaves out the painful ones, this, Pat knows even with holes in his mind. He wants to take in any and all the recollections and stories he can get, pain or pleasure, and he will, in due time. Right now though, this is easy. Right now, this is okay.) 

His partner’s words come to take residence in his mind. Some bring up the deep buried images, fitting right into his home like old and well-loved furnitures. Others feel new and raw, and Patroclus doesn’t know if the pressure in his chest is a melancholy that comes with nostalgia for the past, or grief for blank spots in his head. Either way, he listens and learns to remember again. 

(He wonders sometimes if it might’ve been better to drink properly and start anew. Meet Him for the first time again, make new memories, and he would make sure they’d all be good this time. But then, their love always co-existed with pain, and Pat doesn’t think he’d know how to love without his ever-present dull ache) 

With wandering hands and hopeful (delicate, fragile) smile, Achilles asks, ‘surely I told you about this?’ Chairs and tables and recliners find their places in Pat’s mind: blindfold still on, but light seeps through. 

‘Tell me again.’ 

And He does.

**Author's Note:**

> Listen Pat taking sips from the Lethe has SO much angst potentials but I couldn’t find many works addressing this so I had to make my own. Pat, causing voluntary amnesia is not a good coping mechanism. Also generous amount of references to tsoa Bc it ruined me


End file.
